Medical devices are an important part of the health industry and responsible for saving many lives. There are many procedures that can be performed today because of advances in medical device technology. Stents, for instance, are examples of medical devices that are used in a variety of medical procedures. When stents are used in the context of the vascular system, they can open blocked vessels, increase the flow of blood, and prevent reoccurrence of the blockage. Stents are often used to address weak points or blocked sections of a patient's vasculature. Stents are not limited, however, to the vasculature system and can be employed in many different systems and circumstances.
The production of medical devices such as stents can be a complicated process. Producing the stent includes forming struts that are arranged to provide strength and flexibility to the stent. The struts can be formed, for example, by laser cutting. Once the stent is formed, the stent is then polished. The stent is polished in order to remove rough edges that may remain on the stent and to smooth the surface of the stent. As one can image, a stent with rough edges may have adverse effects if introduced into a patient's vasculature. The stent could cut a vessel's wall or become inadvertently displace, for instance. Rough regions on the stent's surface may create potential areas for thrombogenesis or may negatively impact tissue.
One method of polishing the stent is by a process of electropolishing. Electropolishing stents is a common process that is usually performed in an electrolytic bath. In conventional systems, however, maintaining a consistent surface finish, particularly along the inner surface of the stent, can be difficult. More specifically, electropolishing stents requires contact between the stent and an electrode. The contact between the electrode and the stent surface impede polishing at the contact points. As a result, the stent is polished at a different rate at or near the contact points than at other areas of the stent. There is therefore a need for a way to minimize this effect in order to ensure that surface finish of the stent remains as consistent as possible throughout the electropolishing process.